From Last Week - Nov 25th

Hello!!!

Sssssoooooo this past week we had a great experience with a mega-zone
conference that we had. President Calderwood(my mission president) and
President Glass(Queens Stake President) spoke together at this
conference and they talked about how they together are uniting their
keys of the priesthood and President Calderwood says that when
priesthood keys work together in the spirit of unity it is a recipe
for miracles. It is true though.

We have had A TON of miracles recently. Out of nowhere (elder Lewis
says hi :)) we have had someone we've been working with decide to get
baptized on Dec 8th. And then we had a referral from the Spanish
elders who came to church and loved it who is from Ukraine. We have
also had quite a few great potential investigators come out of nowhere
so I'm just really excited!

I'm just really loving the work and talking to people and sharing my
love with the world but more specifically New York!

Love y'all!!!!
Elder Clark

Hi mom and dad and family and everyone this week has been amazing. We
haven't unable to meet with Y recently, that we were able to meet
with a really cool family that was taught about five years ago. They
are super cool and I have really high hopes for them! We contacted
them from looking up a referral and the person at the door said to go
away but then the teenager girl of this super cool family said hold on
I know these guys! So we met with them and taught them about love at
home last night with the cool paper folding story of the Book of
Mormon. They loved it and I already love them. They are great!

I know there's a lot of talk about the hastening of the work but it is true.
See what you don't know is I am using Siri for this message. Siri is
one of my best friends now :)
It is really cool to be a part of this amazing time. It has been said
before about how the work is hastening so when it is, the work of
Satan is as well. But for the most part Satan isn't trying to get us
with the big things but more I feel like he is trying to get us to use
our time for less important things. He knows it is the small and
simple things that bring great things to pass both on The Lords side
and on Satan's side. So the answer is simple. Pay attention.
Frequently and honestly be accountable to yourself and your Heavenly
Father of your spirits earthly progress. Take time to put yourself in
perspective of the Grand design.

I love you guys!! Things are going well here!
Love,
Elder Clark

Hello loved ones!

So this week we had a pretty good week! We were able to talk to more people and it has been great! I really enjoy the singing flash mobs we do! I talked to a few really awesome people who, even though they aren't baptized or anything haha, they really do come closer to Christ from it. I think that the best missionary work we can do is just love people and show them how Christ would talk to them if he was there. I'm trying to work on this :)

We did a sweet service project of picking up trash along one of the main streets here. it was really fun! Lot's of people look at us like they have never seen a good deed done in their life! It is really nuts! We met someone then who said she would come to church but then she didn't.

I have been teaching so much more than when I first got here though. it is so much more fun! I love teaching! One of the greatest tender mercies of missionary work is watching a person change from unwilling and hard-hearted to feeling the love of the Savior and willing to follow him. Open hearts are amazing. Thats what we need to be to! It takes one to help one! We just need to open our hearts and listen to what the spirit tells us to do or say! even in regards to member missionary work!

The spirit will work through you as you love people enough to share what has made you so happy! So as you may know! My mission does have facebook and skype and such! so please let me know if you know of anyone who would like to have a skype lesson or FB Chat with a missionary. (thats me ;) ) haha But it is a really great blessing. I have already received a referral from a friend at school.

Also we get individual ipads on october 11-13th. to keep with me throughout the whole mission :) Super Cool. Go mission president meeting with the General authorities!

I'm sorry that I haven't sent you pictures for awhile! I will send them soon!

But I have to go!
Love You!!!
Elder Tyler Clark

Hello Fambam and My Big Eternal Fambam!

I am really excited to write to you this week! So to answer your questions yes I am allowed to use facebook now in my mission and I have not gotten on much yet... just to add people and start to make the changes that I need to do.

Hahaha I have been really busy again with a lot of office things but its been fun! We just picked up some really nice new corollas :) mmmmm

I have been a little bit sick this past week but I'll get over it haha :)

There is so much potential in this ward for success that I keep emailing you about but not reporting progress so the latest progress I have is that I met with Y again and she is doing really really well! We hope to set a baptismal date with her soon! We are also meeting with T and she is doing well as well. Both of her kids are active at church but she has work and doesnt know much about church. But she prays with them and everything it is really great!

I will be able to send some pictures to you soon I hope! I'm sorry this is super short but I'm happy to report that I am doing well and I am really excited for how much work I will be able to do when I force time for it which I hope to do before I email you next!

Love ya!

Elder Clark!!!

Sooooo conference. Was. Super. Good.

In between conferences we taught an investigator named Y. She has been searching for answers to her questions and prayers and we had a really awesome lesson with her about the restoration. She has a roommate who is anti-mormon and is very good at messing with her head. But Y is an honest seeker of truth. it is really fun to teach her. We had the prompting to tell her that her answers would come in that last session right after the lesson. I am very excited to tell you of the Lord's love and grace now. In every single one of the talks that were given, they taught and confirmed something we had said to her. Sometimes word for word. I am so grateful that we have general authorities who have lived their lives in such a way to be so directed by the spirit.

This week we went on the subway and did a flash mob singing of "I am a child of God" with Elder A (my hawaiian awesome companion) playing on the ukelele and we sang a verse in english then spanish then verse three in english and that has been a powerful and fun experience in sharing the gospel. Oh i loved it. That happens every week too!!!!! We are trying some new ways of sharing the gospel. but my district especially has some very very talented singers and musicians so its been fun to sing and such! We are trying to record an album by the end of the transfer. We have 1 song recorded and a few more in the process. Im super excited.

I'm still nervous about next transfer but it will be fun. A good learning experience. haha :)

Elder L (my buddy from plainview) and Elder A (my comp) go home in February so we have been working them out to get him marriage worthy ;) hahah we just started doing insanity, ultimate frisbee, soccer, and dodgeball every morning except sunday with the two rego park districts. It's been really fun and we are all sore.

I just want to share quickly my testimony of God's influence in our lives.
The answer is always loving obedience with an eternal perspective. Keep that and He will keep you.
Love,
Elder Clark

Hello! :) :)

Things are slowing down a little bit in the office so I have been able to do some missionary work! Yay! That has been really great we just stopped by a guy on friday who is a history teacher and he has a little ark of the covenant. Hahah he is awesome and we have been trying to help him come back to church. Hopefully.

We gave a 3rd hour missionary presentation this week and it was really really successful. I think there is a lot of potential with this ward.

So I dont have that much time but what we do in the office is we order all the supplies that the mission needs, when available we deliver them, and just all the little things that President or the office need help with we do. We help pick up new missionaries and we help move missionaries. We have the keys to every lock in the office so we are in control of all the book of mormons in all languages and all the passalong cards and all the missionary tools we are incharge of keeping in stock. We are just in charge of a lot of little things that add up time. We have to go pick up DVD players today from walmart for all the new missionaries to do the 12 week program which we ordered for them. Just things like that.
Sorry I got to go but I LOVE YOU!!!!
Love,
Elder Clark the shorter

HELLOOOOOO!!!

So yes. I have been transfered. I miss Bay Shore, NY already. But I am now in Queens, NY in a part called Rego Park. That is where the mission office is. Infact, I have the responsibility of learning how to run the backstages of missionary work. My mission president told me that I am going to take over the office in 6 weeks. I will also be the new District Leader incharge of the Mission Office in Rego Park in 6 weeks. I just have to prepare myself by learning all the ways from my District Leader companion Elder A. He is a BEAST!!! I went on a full day exchange with him during the Hurricane Service in November and I have loved him and wanted to serve with him ever since. He is a STUD! I am so sad that i only get 6 weeks with him.

This week for us has been really really crazy. We have done everything. We have moved and prepared a lot of missionaries and apartments for service by moving people, getting orders together, buying needed items, supplying the necessities, and on top of that we have been trying our best to get out and do some good missionary work. We got to go to lunch with President the other day. (best steak dinner ever at London Linnies) He told us of how he puts some of the most able and best workers in the Rego Park district to do missionary work and then have the added responsibility of running everything else. So as you could imagine I am a little nervous to be incharge of that next transfer. But it will be really really fun. I get a lot of interaction with a lot of people and this will be such a fun position to have. I'm so pumped to GET WORK DONE! I have a large checklist to do and you better believe I'm taking notes because my memory alone wont get the job done. I need organization now. Haha I'm really thankful that I have been working on that for awhile. I'm not sure how much time I will have each week to email or such though because we are the most busy missionaries in the mission probably. I'm already tired. I was up until 12 last night which is crazy for missionary life.

However I did get to go back to Bay Shore on saturday and perform in the Musical Celebration of Families! I loved it! There were a lot of people that I was working with that showed up and felt the spirit really strongly. I am so excited about a few of them. President Calderwood gave the most powerful testimony of families in the closing remarks it was really amazing.

So I am busy, tired, but still lovin it! It's really fun to hear the wise words of the senior office couples in the mission. Elder B always has some awesome story and lesson for us to learn. hahahaha it is so fun to be here.

Elder A is from Hawaii. He is a stud who plays the ukalele really well and is just a giant chill teddy bear. I enjoy pushing him around to make him laugh even though he could eat me. haha we are working hard though and it has been a blast.

I love you all and you are the GREATEST! Keep doing the best at whatever you are doing! Keep your working hard and motives high!

Love,
Elder Clark

o Heelllloooo over there!

Suprisingly enough, despite all of my little thoughts of staying here in Bay Shore another transfer with Elder M, I am leaving tomorrow. After almost 6 beautiful months here. I am very very very sad about it but I am excited for my new experience that I will get to have! New companion! New Area! New Ward! New opportunites! Yay! So I will tell you all about it next week!

Im sad that I might have to miss the Celebration of Families that I was preparing for. I will miss a lot of really great members and really great nonmembers. Shoot I just love Bay Shore! But thats alright! Because whenever we have the opportunity to serve we are able to love, and when we love we have joy! Yes I know I got started on love and joy again but they are like my favorite words.

We went to Montauk this morning, leaving at 4:00. It was super fun and really really peaceful. I love the way nature just gives you the perspective you need. There's some crazy connection between God and all his creations. WE just need to be more connected.

This week we taught Gospel Doctrine on Family History and we learned a ton about the necessity of it! It says in D&C 2 that without that priesthood authority being restored to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and vice versa "the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming." This is intense. It totally makes sense though. The class spent a lot of time talking about the unifying feeling you get(spirit of Elijah!). But then in Luke 1:17 it says something SUPER COOL!

17 And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of aElias, to turn the hearts of the bfathers to the children, and the cdisobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people dprepared for the Lord.

We NEED family history work and that priesthood authority to perform saving ordinances for ourselves and others in the temple. It prepares us for the Lord! It is necessary for us and for them. So that was really exciting to hear especially because the direction missionary work is going is focusing on family history work. I finally figured out why! So get to it! Do Work!

So that was a fun lesson to teach and learn about as you could imagine.

Anywho. I am excited and a little bit nervous. Some big changes are coming very very soon though so that will be exciting!

I love you guys always and forever! See you soon!
Love,
Elder Clark

Good Day! I hope things are well at wherever you may be! :) Things are well for me!

I have been realizing a lot about my purpose here in the last few weeks. I have realized how important love really is. If you get the chance I would recommend reading all of John chapter 15 but I especially love this excerpt. It is one of my new favorite scriptures.
 9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
 10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
 11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
 12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
 14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
this is what I am here to do. Men are that they might have joy. By helping others to have joy we receive the BLESSING(because that is what it is) to have joy. How do we help others and ourselves to have joy? By increasing our love in following the commandments of the Father.
I don't care what you are going through or where you are in life, this is the answer! How often do we look in other round about places for answers when we forget about where we come from! How can we forget about our creator! Who loves us so much that he enables us to grow, progress, have life experience, and ultimately return to live in his presence and receive a fulness of joy. Who better do we have to thank, to love, to follow, and to remember than our Eternal Father in Heaven and His Son Jesus Christ. When all that they do is for us. Christ gave up all that we can partake of that joy! We cannot make a mockery of it. We should be HAPPY!!!
(may or may not have told this story but this is the coordinating picture) Something that helped bring about this great change in me and my reasons for doing what I do has been when Elder H and I were on an exchange and we had plans to visit certain people, but Elder H had a prompting to visit somebody else. We visited him. His name is R. We soon found out it was his birthday and he had basically mowed his lawn and gone to work and thats it. A little lonely... So in the course of our conversation he mentioned ordering a chocolate malt from a carvel with a chinese worker who didn't understand what that was. So he went with a milkshake instead. I had the prompting to go buy him a malt. so we did and he could not contain his joy. at all. 3 hugs and 4 handshakes later he was still high pitched 'aaaaahhh'ing and all he could say was "You guys got me a malt" It was the greatest and most awesome thing ever! He was just soooo dang happy it was really cool to see. You better believe I walked away from that a happier person. a changed person. with more desire to love and to show my love for people with service. Motives improved :)
Elder M and I have been doing really well. We have been preparing hardcore for the celebration of families we are having. R has been doing alright but we are still trying to figure out how to help him... A and N both got jobs and are working a lot. We also were able to meet with this less active and give him and his buddy a blessing. His buddy has a crazy background. He is a crypt member who just got out of jail. He has tattoos all over and chains and everything. But he is a child of God and it humbled me to talk to him and feel of who he can become. Hes got a hard life that is for sure. He wants to change and come to church so we will see what happens.
I just want you to all know that I love you and that Heavenly Father loves you as well!!!
You are the greatest you there is! So keep it up!
LOVE,
Elder Clark

Good Afternoon Brothers and Sisters in our big huge eternal family,

I'd like to start off my talk by saying... THE US OPEN IS THE BOMB! So yes i got to go and yes i got to watch sloane stevens and bernard tomic and na li and the people they played :) It was sooooo much fun! I was basically in control of the whole stadium at sloane stevens match. if i didn't yell anything, they didnt but if i did they did it was awesome haha!

But this past week has been crazy! R has been kicked out of his house so that has been hard for him but hey Satan will try his best to break people down when they are doing good things! Thats where his trust in the Lord is so important! He has incredible trust! He recognizes eternal things better than most. it is really incredible.

These past two weeks have been amazing. a lot of changes... we found out we are getting ipads and facebook in a month... so beware world! haha its going to be so weird. but the work will be able to progress so much faster. The Lord is Hastening his work. I know its true.

By the way i talked to president about J and he said that if he shows strong commitment for a period of 3 months, him and the bishop would get together and write a letter to the aunt and uncle in utah about it. So that will be great if he will be able to be baptized.

As Jesus Christ hastens his work of Salvation, Satan hastens his work of destruction and vice versa. I love it, we just have to choose the right way to hasten!

Love yall again!
BYE! :* kiss kiss love love

I just want to tell you i love you!

I dont have any time I do love you and you can feel heavenly fathers love and comfort. Just ask him :)
Love,
Elder Clark

I

love love love my mission president. He is the most organized, prioritized, patient, and loving man I basically have ever known hahah. he is a good representative of our Heavenly Father. and ya Sister Kapisi loves the Clark family... Its been really fun to hear stories about my cousins and tell her stories about them haha

So this week has been taken up with a lot of service and then a lot of preparation for Rs baptism. We didn't get to teach much this week but it was still good!

So R is a stud. I was able to baptize him and he was telling me how good he felt and that he felt like this was something right and then later he texted us and said "thanks guys so much I feel lighter, like my burdens are gone". He is such a freakin stud! He was so prepared for the gospel its amazing! He will strengthen the ward a lot.

So also crazy news! A came back from the military. He had an Asthma attack during training and so he has to be home for a couple years in order for him to possibly go back. It's kinda sad but we are so happy to have him back here.

 Man I love Bay Shore! There is so much work to do here and it will be able to get done with the members that we have and the strength of the area. Seriously at church the only problem we have had with fellowshipping is new people being overwhelmed with how many people come up to them and introduce themselves. its a fun problem to have.

We are hardcore preparing for the Musical Fireside were having now! I'm super pumped about that! President is going to come and there hopefully will be a full house! I'm in the choir so that will be cool.

I'm super excited to go to the US Open. enough said about that! hahaha I'll take lots of pictures!

So spiritual message for the week. Elder Legere and I have been figuring out life. haha we have decided that obedience is the most important part of life because it

So this week we have been able to teach a lot more! We came upon this less active family with Brother J (an awesome Haitien in our ward) and we met the mother and the rest of the family. They are so awesome but the husband isn't too into the church we found out. That's why they don't go. But we were able to really help them and it was the necessary time for us to be there. They were so happy that we came I loved it. Theyre the G family from Africa somewhere :)

We also did a lot of service again this week. Lots of shovels and pullin weeds and such! We destroyed a giant wasps nest with white tailed wasps that scared the blank out of me. But that was all just fun and games.

Ronald asked me to baptize him this Sunday the 18th so that will be a really good experience. I'm really excited for that! But also A came to church! That is the greatest thing ever! I'm super excited for him! That was the first time he has come ever! Finally after like 5 months of working with him! He is a stud and I love that 75 year old.

So pretty cool experience yesterday... we got to go do service for a fair type occasion at a jewish temple! That was really really cool! We got a lot of good community presence and service for a lot of different vendors and the directors of the fair! I loved to see how nice all the jewish representatives were to us. They invited us to come worship with them so I guess we will see what happens with that haha. They just didn't know how to thank us for the service.

We are also planning to have a religious fair with all religions having a booth type occasion. The representatives invited us to this interfaith meeting so we will be presenting our plan for the religious fair to that counsel and were hoping to raise religious excitement in the area. This hopefully will be a big hit. That is what we are going for!

Also we are planning a HUGE musical Fireside that were calling "Families; God's Gift to Us" "a musical celebration of families" So we are hoping for good results with that as well! We have a lot of talented musicians in our ward.

also when I get home remind me to tell you Elder J story. He is a stud and because of him his whole family has been baptized. This was finished with the baptism of his Dad yesterday. So Cool. He was baptized about 2 years ago.

I just want to say that the Gospel is more real than we realize and we need to strive to recognize how often God's hand is in our lives directing traffic. In all the craziness if we just trust in the Lord we have peace. I know that is true.

Thanks for everything! 

I love you all!

If you read this whole thing you deserve a cookie.

Love,

Elder Clark

This week was weird. We did a lot of service and got a lot of community presence going so that was good. But we went on 2 exchanges and we had service to do in the morning 3 times this week so we hardly got to do much studies. We had set 4 or 5 appointments that didn't work out but we were able to teach R once this week and he came to church again and loved it. He is still excited for his baptism in two weeks! With it being fast and testimony meeting he wrote on the program that "when it time for my testimony, I will make everyone cry. because i have been through a lot and i am lucky to be here. success story." He is amazing. A definite tender mercy as I have said before. He is a little bit worried to speak in church though because he thinks he cant speak english very well bit I notice no language barrier.

I have been teaching Gospel Principles and I just love that class. It has been a humbling experience for me just learning from these people who are new to the church. They have full lives behind them and they are very very strong in the faith. They have a true understanding of simple doctrines that they know and trust more than many active members. Simplicity is great and powerful.

We also were able to go to Port Jefferson (beautiful) and we did a singing street sweep in the rain. Our whole zone got on this street corner and sang hymns for about an hour with a giant mormon.org sign in front of us and it was super cool. Very very fun. (i even beatboxed as a background to a few of the songs... haha ya Dad I haven't been the greatest at stopping beatboxing... sorry :) )

You decide whether you want to share this next paragraph to all or not I don't mind either way:

Yesterday I had the opportunity to fast for miracles. I did not realize the huge blessing that would come from it. Elder M and I seemed to have a normal missionary day until we got a call around 9 to give a blessing to a single lady in our wards non-practicing Muslim daughter. We felt it necessary to go but we did not realize the magnitude of the need. She had tried to kill herself 2 times in the past week, by divine intervention she is still alive. So we gave her a blessing and felt the Power of God's indescribable Love for her. She finally felt some peace. She then opened up to us and told us of her life story and we were then able to testify of the same simple amazing truths that brought me out here on my mission and she felt the power behind it. Elder M and I had a really great experience with helping her out and now we have a lot of hope for her.

I testify will all the power of my soul that Heavenly Father knows us. But he doesn't just know us. He is our number one fan. He follows us better than we could possibly follow our favorite sports team. He is there for us always whether he intervenes or not. But he ALWAYS does what is best for us and what eternally will make us the Happiest we possibly can be. I promise that if we choose to follow him and submit our will to his loving plan for us we will receive a fulness of joy, love, and peace. More so than we could ever imagine with our temporary minds. It's worth it.

The pics are of when i was justin beiber for a companionship study and when i saran wrapped Elder M earlier this week. :) haha

Alright I got the look to go from Elder M hahahaha just kiddin i got to go though.
I love you all!
Love,
Elder Clark Sr.

Dear Family!
So I don't have much time but here ya go!

That referral we received last week ended up being this AWESOME guy named R from Haiti who we met with 3 times and we have a baptismal date with him on August 18th. He is really progressing well and then also we have a few other people we are trying to work with that are doing well.

Biggest story for this week other than that is that we were out on the street doing a talent sweep showing our talents to the world and talking to people about the gospel basically saying that we are real people and we need to work together as children of God. So during that we had a guy who drunk came up to us and started preaching to us but not in a bashing manner at all and he was saying that the world is waiting on us and that we are God's people and kings and priests. That was really cool but then he said a prayer with us and he started crying. it was a thing where we all held hands in a circle of prayer ahha that happens a lot here. It was great.

We are working hard and really seeing a good amount of blessings of success. I love you guys so much!
Have a BEAUTIFUL week!
Love,
Elder Clark

Hi!

This week has been a bummer for teaching appointments however we were able to stop by F and K for our appointment to find out that F was asleep but K invited us to eat with them! That was really fun and nice of her. We had given F a blessing and she said that since then his condition had been improving and with restless leg syndrome he had slept well the past few nights so that is awesome.

But then also we knocked a lot of doors this week and after knocking all those doors and such the only person we found literally walked up to us and fearlessed us. He is another very good potential we talked to him for about an hour and a half about the church and he agreed with everything we said. That was cool because hes a bible scholar too!

Then later in the week we were able to meet with a referral from other elders with a guy who said he wants to participate in our musical fireside we are holding. So that will be cool he might end up making a rhythm on guitar with us making lyrics! I have high hopes for a good turnout with that!

A said he was going to be able to come to church and he or F or G or A or R didn't show up! That was a bummer especially because there was a baptism with the ward yesterday... oh well hopefully next week...

But also this week i went on exchanges with another one of my favorite missionaries named Elder Perry and we drove by perry street so I said we should knock it and so we did! Nobody at first on Perry St was nice so that was depressing but then as we were walking away a lady walked out of a house and we decided to talk to her and she became a very very solid potential for the Zone Leaders so that was really cool. Her name was J.

Something that I found really cool about this week is that we had worked really hard doing all that we could to find people to teach. The blessing didn't come in that time doing all we could but it came after we had done all that we could. I think that is definitely a good representation of the Atonement and the meaning of Grace. Grace isn't just making up the difference though grace is Jesus Christ helping us to get as far as we can go and then he carries us the rest of the way.


We also just received a wonderful referral for tonight who might end up being baptised soon it sounds like. we will see! But i will let you know next week!

Love you!
Elder Clark

This week. Well it was a pretty good week!

The most recent news has been that Elder W got transfered out of my district and my new district leader is Elder H! he is one of my favorite missionaries and he is from my MTC district!

We have been doing a lot of finding people to teach recently. But even though we are finding people... we are not finding people in our own area. ha 90% of the people we have found have been referrals to other missionaries :( and :) that the work is progressing! However we did receive one referral this week who we contacted and we were able to teach him and his wife and they hopefully will be able to progress! They are a blessing that is for sure.

Once again we had a reallly reallllly awesome Gospel Principles class! It was really amazing because we had someone come who wasn't a member but came with a member and she basically felt the spirit really really strongly! It was really cool because the lesson was on fasting and it turned into one of the most spiritual sunday school classes i have ever been to. and that's saying a lot because of my great teachers growing up. It was amazing how much they just took the lesson away and gospel conversation took over and filled the room with the spirit. She is soooo prepared to hear the gospel it is amazing. She is going to be taught by the sister missionaries and she said she was so spiritually fulfilled that she will definitely be there next sunday.

I have a testimony of testimonies and the effect of simple testimonies. They are the most powerful. If you listen to the testimonies of the General Authorities who knock our socks off with the spirit and listen to the words they are saying... you will realize that they are simple truths. It is the spirit that brings the power so why can't we bear testimony of simple truths and have the same spiritual power? We can. Every member is a missionary and every testimony can make a difference in a brother or sisters eternity. But don't do it as a duty do it as an act of love.

So to explain the pictures... the mug is for the plaque if you want to use that one... idk... but then the house is a parable we made when we were tracting about how the house could be a beautiful thing but it stood still and didn't get worked on until the paint all came off and satans twine of bushes slowly tied it up and overcame it. but the atonement of Jesus Christ works as the paint and the shears so thats why i am sad!  haha then there is a pic of us at a park :)

So I love you all! Have a beautiful week! It was fun to hear about all those experiences within the last two weeks! Keep it up please :)
Have fun and Love ya!

Elder Clark

July 8

HELLO OVER THERE!

Hooray for Jeffy I mean ELDER CLARK!!!! That is so cool. Man he is so awesome! He will do so many good things to the good place of Japan(north carolina).

I am grateful for his testimony. It is amazing how much simple obedience helps us to gain an unshaken testimony of the Gospel. Specifically it is the Lords plan for all of us and only through using all the principles and ordinances of the Gospel can we have immortality and eternal life.

This week has been really good! Elder M and I have walked a lot this last week. Basically anytime when we run out of daily car miles we just go down to the pad, park, and walk main street fearlessing people for however long we have left during the day. There was even a day that we did not use our car. thats where the two pictures came from is our walking times... haha i like walking a lot!

Shoot it is really fun to have Elder M as a companion because we are very very obedient. This week we had 3 lessons that we taught to random people! That hasn't happened very often... but it did this week! We are finding a lot of people to teach but they are almost all in other missionaries areas... so we give a lot of referrals. Hopefully we will be able to have the tender mercies of finding people or families who are pure in heart and ready to accept the gospel.

A last week left for the military but yesterday he actually called me! It was so fun to talk to him! He was so excited that there was an LDS church on the base and everything! but ya his phone is now gone for 2 months at least...

We finally were able to meet with B also! His wife just got out of the Hospital from a full knee replacement and we were able to go give her a blessing that I feel like truly brought the spirit into their lives. I wonder if she will actually join our lessons now? That's what I am hoping!

I have to go but I love you all!
Love,
Elder Clark

Hello!!!

So this week has been great! I was able to meet my new companion Elder M before transfer meeting and he said something I didn't understand from the best two years meaning my new companion or something like that... haha It is so great though how much fire he has! That is what I had prayed for! He kinda has opposite personality of me but we get along pretty well and he is a great missionary. It is fun! We are working really hard to be obedient. It is working pretty well! He is from Boise, Idaho and he has 5 younger brothers... hahaha so similar except he is 6'3" and I am 4'3"(according to a funny 11 year old girl in our ward named Paris)

This past week we decided we should go fearless people at a park and we drove by this one like three times trying to find a different park we never found. But there was one person there swinging on the swings that we decided to talk to. And so it came to pass(ya bad joke i know) that we recognized her and it was N the crazy yet fun recent convert in the ward. She then asked us if we wanted to come over to her house to teach her. On the way there she said she had a revelation that if Elder C (my trainer) had not had been the missionary to convert her then Elder M and I would have been the Lords backup plan from that prompting to speak to her! So then she told us that we weren't going to teach her but instead we were going to go hand out all the book of mormons we had. That was 32... we handed all of them out... maybe not the most effective form of missionary work but it was really fun! We had a few people who were genuinely interested and it was helpful for Elder M haha :) So ya I'm really happy right now. We are doing work. hardcore.

We now have 6 missionaries in the Bay Shore Ward and Elder W is still my district leader who is companions with my friend Elder L from Las Vegas! Also! Our mission for the first time has 10 Zones! We just added a new Zone! So my district moved from zone 8 to zone 9! The missionary work is definitely progressing here in New York! I hope to help out with that more in these next few transfers!

Something cool that happened yesterday was that Elder M and I were praying about how to better help the missionary work in our area and the spirit spoke to me and said "Do your best and I will do the rest". Later that day in Gospel principles class, Sister Hamblin's new comp Sister Kapisi from Hawaii said "if we do our best Christ will do the rest" basically the exact same quote. It was really amazing the spirit just poured into that room. That is my quote of the week! I'm sure I told you that I somehow received an etch-a-sketch that I write quotes of the week on each week... well ya so its been etched. We also were able to go help Bishop out on Fire-Island(island off the southern coast of Bay Shore. I love that place but I hate how many mosquito's are there. I got eaten alive...

This week was really sad to say goodbye to Sister S and her kids (moving to Houston) and then today we said bye to A (Reporting for Military) but also before I said goodbye to Sister B I gave her your phone numbers and such so if you want to meet up for dinner or something if you ever have time that'd be cool(moving to Roseville or somewhere close). They are a great family. Her husband is working at the hospital in Citrus Heights or something like that i don't remember... I also told them to call you if they were in need or anything...

I am learning my area fast now though because I am driving and we are doing things the old fashioned way... A map! hahahaha I've gotten lost only like 3 times haha but I will learn it soon enough!

I love you!
Elder Clark

Hi!

So its been awhile since i have emailed last... so hello again! Welcome to the written version of me. And yes you can all tease me for saying that.

On Saturday we were able to have the BBQ and it went actually relatively well! Members definitely ran on double mormon standard time so that made us a little nervous but then we filled the whole half parking lot with cars by the end! Brother Danner smoked some ribs and cooked a million burgers and hot dogs and EVERYTHING was eaten. It was all so good. A came and there were a couple nonmembers that came as well! L and 4 of his nonmember friends came and so that was awesome. We didn't get any new investigators or anything but we definitely helped create a little more unity and love within the ward and helped those nonmembers to understand that we are all brothers and sisters! It was a lot of fun though.

Then on Saturday night it was really cool because we hadn't hit like any of our goals that we had set. So at that point I said a silent prayer after pondering how to hit our Sacrament meeting attendance goal. I had the prompting to make Elder Weber a promise that I turned into a deal. That I would bet(don't judge) him a Wendys frosty that if we would wake up on-time, have a good personal study, and actually do a good companionship study that we would be able to hit our church attendance goal of 2 investigators with one new investigator at church and if we'd hit it he wouldn't have to buy me one. Well we did this and as soon as our companionship study was over... well! We got a text from leo. He said "hey I'm bringing my friend to church you better make her feel welcome" hahahaha that was a very victorious feeling! Ha that was cool that God helped us fulfil a strange promise! And then of course A came to church for the first time since I have been here! So we hit our goal. We need to go get frosty's to celebrate... Unless Dad you wanna come make us a chocolate shake ;) we wont decline :)

I think those personal commandments and promises that the spirit will tell us are so great. We neeeeeeed to follow those promptings. Eternal Perspective. Make like nike and just do it!

Also A is getting baptised on Sunday so that will be really exciting i will tell you about it next week. He is doing really well though... He is already considering a mission and he isn't even baptized yet. I think he wants to feel the spirit of a missionary because he was hanging out with 6 missionaries and he was so impressed at how we are all like brothers. But he is heading for basic training(i think...) in the military on June 2nd so that would be an interested leave.

So anyways!!!
I loooooove youuuuuu!
Love,
Elder Clark

Hi!

You guys look so good from here!

So exciting news! A was able to get baptized on sunday!!! It was a really really good experience. Especially because A's Mom and little brother came and felt the spirit there. It went really well because everyone there made them feel like family. And her mother brought baked zini, a fruit tray, and a salad for the afterparty haha it was great! I made brownies and almost burnt the brownies and my fingers at the same time! That's two things at once I told you I could multi-task mother ;) haha but they seemed like they were comfortable here. She said she was getting really emotional. With it being fathers day was really awesome as well because A's dad just passed away about 2-1/2 months ago. So I feel like he had a special part in that. After A got baptized he said "I feel amazing. I truly feel like new. Like I'm a new me and I get to start completely new." Later he randomly texted us saying "I feel soooooo good". Man it was so good to feel the spirit of the day and the spirit of the ordinance done with the priesthood authority of God.

Something I would like to say in advice is to truly listen to the words of the Sacrament as you partake of it. Remember that if you do those things, take his name upon you and always remember him then you will have the spirit to cleanse you and make you feel as A said "NEW"! Thats why the Sacrament is so important and we need to take it more like an ordinance that gives us access to the Atoning Sacrifice of Jesus Christ to purify our hearts and minds preparing us to become like our Heavenly Father, and to not take it just as something to eat on fast Sunday. I promise that if you do that this week you will find more purpose in the week to come. That you will truly change and align your will with God's will.

Anyways I gotta go but I love you all!
Have a beautiful day and week.

Love,
Elder Clark

Dearest Family...

This week has been a nice mix up... On Monday my companion Elder Weber took a 2-1/2 hour nap so i figured I'd improvise and have some fun! So I created a mini golf course out of my pad (pic 1) :) It was fun! I learned how to cook some good garlic bread with melted cheese on top at the S for the last FHE we would have with them before Brother S left for Houston! :( (pic 2). Man I'm going to miss him and then Sista S when they leave... basically mama and papa schoenbeck to me... Then on tuesday Brother Danner our amazing ward mission leader made us some delicious chili... hes famous for it... on Wednesday we met with Anthony and Novinta and he is doing really well! Still looking to get baptised on the 16th and then Thursday we finally had a member present with our lesson with A! We took brother d who we clean the church then eat at old country buffet with every thursday morning and he is such an awesome guy. He is old though so he loved to tell stories... It's a good thing we didn't have another appointment until an hour and a half after that appt because we almost missed our second one anyways haha! I'm so glad though because I think bringing him made him more comfortable to come to church. We will have to bring someone else this week though because A still didn't come... He just is always helping people so thats what he was doing again... haha hes a good guy... Then on Friday I went on a basically all day exchange with Elder Garcia (pic 3) from So-Cal who is a really awesome missionary. He got in the mission in brentwood spanish a week after I left for home and has been here since with his trainer Elder Heagren who came out with me! the whole time! thats 5 transfers! 7-1/2 Months with the same companion and in the same area... That was really fun because I got to excercise my spanish skills again! Haha I talked to a lot of spanish people and we found this AMAZING family while we were tracting... We talked to them about gospel and life for about 45 minutes while they were sitting out on their porch (typical NY) eating mr. Softees (ice cream truck that claps during the song). That was so fun! then also the spanish program gets fed... a lot... I had 2 DA's while I was on the exchange that ended at 4:30. Like full on delicious spanish meals. We also talked to this one guy who was sitting in the shade of a tree (soooooo hot outside.... Humidity is the worst...) and we gave him a card and asked him if he would give us his info so we could call him and he was looking for his phone number in his wallet and he pulled out a different mormon pass-along card that he found on the ground. he had cut out the picture of jesus into a nice framelike image and it turns out that Garcia had written that card! that was really cool and he was pretty excited that we were the original owners of that card! I think that alone really sparked his interest! Moral of the Story... Even if you think your efforts in a righteous cause in anyway go unnoticed or unsuccessful know that Heavenly Father has a bigger purpose in mind and that he will allow his purposes to happen even if it is not in the way our minds picture them. Always trust in the Lord's way! It may not be the easiest way in our perspective but it will always be the best for us. Also... take into consideration that by small and simple things great things come to pass!

On sunday the sisters had a baptism that went really well as well! The husband of the member mother of the son being baptized actually seems like he is becoming interested! He asked Elder Weber and I to come by sometime so hopefully we can help the family come together through the gospel!

One of my new favorite scriptures came to me this week as I was finding strength scriptures to put in my workout room to encourage me to workout.... I came across 2 Cor 12:9-10 "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." I believe this scripture to be the answer to life's challenges. In fact, I know that this is why we are given challenges in life. That when we humble ourselves with our own agency and truly rely on Christ by choosing his side and his ways to endure our trials, then and only then is when THE POWER OF CHRIST RESTS UPON US. Then is when we are the strongest. Because all is possible through Christ. I believe that if we learn to glory in our infirmities we will enjoy the blessings that come with eternal progression and increased perspective.

I love you all and pray that you will be able to do this throughout this week!
You are great! All Y'all!
Love,
Elder Clark

Hello Everybody!

This last week has been a lot of meetings and a lot of service. We had Elder K from the seventy come tour our mission and so we had a mega zone conference with him that was really really awesome. He gave an awesome perspective on missionary work. We just need to act on it and so many blessings will come (hmmmm sounds kinda like life right?). So much is being done to help us work smart and not just hard.

We are doing this new thing in our mission where we are being accountable for our plans and not just our goals. For example we have the goal of 1 new investigator to sacrament meeting which is based on the agency of our investigator but we are turning the focus to being accountable for our plan of how many people we invite to sacrament meeting because that is something we control.

Too often we let things get us down that we do not control whether it be our trials or results of our efforts or things that other people do or say. If we only focus on what we can control we will feel more control over our lives and the happiness we enjoy! Honestly we are just too stressed all the time. Eternal Perspective.

We did a lot of service for the M family this past week and that has been really really awesome. The husband is a less active member and for the first time since I have been here he came to church yesterday!!! I was soooooo happy to see him there! They feed us really well at their house also so that is nice. In the past week doing service I have had burgers, hot dogs, ribs, popeyes spicy chicken, NY Pizza, etc... Man so good. I love food and my pants don't love me because of it.

However! I have been able to jog a little bit and that has been so good. I missed jogging. It's funny how much I took it for granted when I felt like I could do anything under the sun. But man I'm excited to play some sports in a few months!!!

So this last week has been rough in regards to missionary work but this upcoming week should be a lot better! We are really excited for it! I just want to work hard right now. I hope that desire stays.

Anyways I love you all! Have a beautiful week! Keep on truckin through your trials because the growth of faith and strength will be worth it! Not to mention Eternal Life.

Love y'all,
Elder Tyler Clark

HELLO EVERYONE!

This week has been kinda nuts... We have been cancelled on a lot at the beginning of the week. Then we had another person walk into our church building while we were cleaning it saying that he just needed some peace. His son had just passed away from cancer. We were able to help him have a lot more comfort when we testified of the Plan of Salvation to him! It was awesome and he definitely was helped. The spirit is so great at what he does and I love it! He lives in Plainview's area though so we gave his info to other missionaries. That was really cool though especially because we had just started a change we had made to be more obedient. Then we get that person to encourage us. Tender Mercies.

Then the week really really started to go crazy... We were able to meet with A twice and he has a new baptismal date for June 16th which is good. Then on thursday we received a phone call about a less active member of our ward who passed away! Very few people knew her in the ward but the sister missionaries knew her. However the family said they wanted it to be a Mormon service because of her background in the church. Crazy as it seems nobody in our ward leadership could make it to the funeral service except one who was able to come last minute. So I was asked to conduct the funeral service. Wow. Elder Weber gave a talk and the Sisters each gave prayers and then some other members of the lady's family sang and read poems and such. That was quite a growing experience for me as you might imagine. But it was also very very touching for Elder Weber and I to be able to listen to the spirit proclaiming lovingly to these brothers and sisters about how she is taken up to that God who gave her life. We are blessed with the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. I then was able to dedicate her grave. It was really touching to see the respect that everybody had for us. Even though in the room of 100+ people at the Funeral Home we were the only members of our church. It was another testimony to me that we are all brothers and sisters. The spirit was so strong in that room. Man I just loved everybody.

So that was the craziest thing that happened to me in the last week. Abraham is actually reading what we give him to read! That is so awesome and his wife was really really impressed with us! She is the one that said if you could crack him it would take a miracle. Well miracles happen when Christ is involved in something concerning his will. :)

Something I learned this week is pretty cool. We were discussing why the heck it says we will receive fire AND the Holy Ghost in the scriptures. But we discovered that we will have fire as to our purification and then because we will be clean the Holy Ghost will come dwell with us. We need to keep the temple of our body clean in order for the Holy Ghost to dwell with us. So cool.

Anyways thats all for now! I'm happy to be done with my math class finally haha :) But I love you all and wish you the happiest of happy days!

Love,
Elder Clark

Hi!
So this week has been better than dabomb.com. by far.

We were able to finally meet with N (recent convert who might go to SVU!) boyfriend named A and we taught him one lesson so far and he wants to be baptized! Then we met with B who has been taught for 10 years or so and he also has decided that he needs to commit to baptism as well! So we are trying to help both of them continue in the gospel!

Also we had an amazing break the fast that we had set up after church on sunday! I was kinda worried about how it would work out because we kinda did it on short notice but we had a full ward and we had invited a million people to church whether by phone calls or personally. We had one person show up randomly who I left a message inviting him(C). We had another who we didn't call but CALLED US asking if she could come to church this sunday. Then we had one lady call us back asking if we could help her with service and so we met with her and she came also(E)! So needless to say... we were very very blessed this week!

Even more so was when during Gospel Principles we had an awesome discussion about how the organization of the church is and how it was the same church that Jesus Christ set up and E said "I feel blessed to be here right now knowing about this church. Jesus Christ truly leads this church! It is truly his church! That has never clicked until now and I know its true! I can feel it!" Needless to say Sister Hamblin then invited her to be baptized IN GOSPEL PRINCIPLES and she said yes! ya what the flip... Crazy awesome blessings! Then later during the munch n mingle thing J basically told us she wants to get baptized as well! I am humbled to be in the middle of the Lords work right now. I could not be happier and I know that it is not me, but I glory in the Lord my God. Whom I know to be our Savior and brother. He loves us perfectly and guides us perfectly.

I now just hope that Elder Weber and I can keep up with the Lords blessings! I have a testimony of this work. I know that it is the Lords work and he directs it. It is of the most worth for me and all those who even if by their examples play a part in it. Just be a friend to others! That is probably the best missionary work to do! Be a friend and show that you care! Spread the Love! The Gospel of Jesus Christ in action! If you get an impression to share simple yet lifechanging gospel truths do it! But as my brilliant little brother says "share what you feel!" That's so important. You don't have to recite the first vision word for word, in fact it would be better for you to throw your whole heart into a simple statement like "I know that God is our Heavenly Father, and from my experience and my knowledge I know that he answers our prayers and guides us to where we need to be"

I love you all!
Thanks for everything!
Im excited for our family time coming up in a weeeeeeeeek!!!!
Love,
Elder Tyler Clark

Mother Dearest, Papa Sweet Sauce, Fambam Clark n Fambam friends!

Hey! So this week has been pretty good except we haven't been able to meet with anyone... People cancelling and we had President interviews and a lot of meetings and such so that was alright.

However! We did get to do service for this lady who still had a tree down from the hurricane and we helped her with that and she asked me a lot of questions about our church and I told her how I felt and I gave her a book of mormon! She said she is going to read it! I hope that will go somewhere! But we shall see! Dang agency of others ;)  haha but
ya she was actually pretty interested! It was cool to see her be able to trust us because she has had a lot of problems with a bad divorce and she is very untrusting of people throwing blame around and such. It was cool to see how last week I was incharge of giving a workshop(lesson) on listening in District Meeting and applying what I learned from that about the importance of it I think is one thing that got her to trust us. The Lord works in Awesome ways!

But anyways this Sunday we are doing a 5th of May break the fast pot luck Plan of Salvation walk through with members bearing their testimony of the principles in the Doctrine of Christ and the missionaries talking about the three kingdoms of glory so I am pretty excited for that! Hopefully members will bring their friends to church... That would be great! Then next week on Saturday we are putting a barbeque together that should be a lot of fun! As I told you we are planning and making a lot of activities happen with the ward to give them opportunities to invite friends to things...

My leg is feeling pretty good! I haven't jogged yet but I feel like its moving along pretty nicely! I peppered with some members and the sister missionaries on saturday with a volleyball and it is doing well still! I love sports.. Its hard for me to watch others play... It will be especially hard when I can actually play basketball but I can't because I told mission president I wouldn't...

So nugget from personal study this past week...
I have been reading in the beginning chapters in 3 Nephi and I have learned that we in a sense have two battles to face... We have outer enemies as the Gadiantan robbers trying to tempt or destroy us in whom we have to bring all our faith and energy together to destroy and then we have our inner battle of pride that so badly wants to destroy us. The Nephites had just killed off the Gadiantan robbers and when a couple years of peace went by they started to get prideful again and lost almost everything! If we, during times of peace when the trials have slowed, choose to not be progressive and improve ourselves we literally will go backwards. We need to never seize in our efforts to use to tools of the Gospel in our lives in order for us to not get trapped in Satans awful grip! On the upside we will continue to receive blessings as we strive to become like Christ through his Atonement! Choose ye this day whom ye will serve!

Love,
Elder Clark